


Through Thick and Thin (and the Occasional Poisoning)

by icabyppup



Series: Whumptober 2019 [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Hospitalization, Hurt Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Medical Inaccuracies, POV James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Poisoning, Prompt #1 - Shaky Hands, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Rhodey deserves a fucking medal, Whump, Whumptober 2019, mercury poisoning, probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 09:51:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20890160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icabyppup/pseuds/icabyppup
Summary: Whumptober 2019 prompt #1 - shaky handsorRhodey looking out for Tony in their MIT days and generally being The Best Friend™





	Through Thick and Thin (and the Occasional Poisoning)

**Author's Note:**

> Here, take my barely-edited, barely-read - hell, barely-written - trash
> 
> Actually, no, NOT barely edited - thanks to CaraIsTrash! The reason this fic is at all comprehensible, the reason I'm a tiny bit sane - I owe her so much, you would not believe. This fic is dedicated to you, for being The Best Friend™ with everything that's been going down recently. I seriously can never thank you enough for everything you've done. 
> 
> Also a huge thank you to RookieReporterZ, for being the most amazing and encouraging friend... guess what? You get The Best Friend™ award too... I just can't not, okay. You two are the best.
> 
> No, I will never stop writing paragraphs of praise for my amazing friends in my notes.
> 
> Anyway, this is my attempt at throwing my hat in the ring for Whumptober... hope you guys like it!

Rhodey was worried.

That in of itself wasn’t particularly unusual, especially since he had somehow become the de-facto caregiver of a too-smart-for-his-own-good-but-still-somehow-incredibly-stupid teenager. Rhodey spent a lot of time agonising over Tony, now accustomed to the ever-present knot of worry in his gut and voice in the back of his mind reminding him to make the kid eat. He had become particularly adept at looking for warning signs, the red flags in his friend’s behaviour now far easier to spot.

Red flags like his younger roommate’s shaking hands.

Tony had stumbled back to the dorm about an hour ago, having worked himself to almost-collapse on some project or other, red-cheeked and hands shaking uncontrollably. Rhodey had picked up on the exhaustion immediately, ushering the teenager to the couch and getting some half-decent food into him. This wasn’t such an unusual occurrence.

What was unusual, however, is the fact that almost an hour later Tony’s hands were still shaking. That was a big red flag for Rhodey.

“Tones?”

The teenager looked up at him, bleary-eyed and flushed from his spot on the couch.

“Yeah?” His speech wasn’t far off incomprehensible mumbling.

“Your hands are still shaking. Did you notice that?”

He knew that often when Tony came back exhausted, he was barely aware of the things going on around him. Rhodey’s suspicions were supported when the genius looked down at his hands and dazedly lifted them to his flushed cheeks, as though checking that he was, in fact, shaking.

“Huh,”

The elder boy suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. For all his many talents, Tony wasn’t particularly observant.

The worried feeling in his gut clenched a little tighter, and Rhodey looked back over to his friend. Tony’s hands, still wracked with tremors, were scratching lightly at his arms. The older boy reached over, taking the younger’s hands in his.

“Tones, why are you scratching?”

“M’itchy,” the teenager attempted to yank his arms out of the stronger grip, and Rhodey felt the shaking kick up a notch.

“Okay, man. Any ideas why you’re itchy?”

Tony simply shook his head, still struggling against the older boy’s grip. Rhodey refused to let go, alarms blaring in his mind and the worried energy in his gut clenching tightly. Suddenly, the teenager became frantic – head shaking violently, struggling and kicking. The older boy kept a tight hold on him.

“Tones? What’s up?”

“Bugs.”

“Bugs? What d’you mean bugs?”

Rhodey looked at him, perplexed and concerned. Tony twitched violently, shirt damp with sweat and his damn hands still shaking uncontrollably. Something was seriously wrong. The teenager looked up at him, brown eyes wide and face flushed a sickly pink.

“Bugs. Under my skin.”

Okay, this was not good. Pulling his friend closer, he examined his inner arms for any needle marks. This could definitely be drugged behaviour, although Tony had never acted like this when he was high before…

“Okay man, I need you to think. Have you taken anything weird? I promise I won’t be mad, Tones.”

The teenager just shook his head harder, becoming more and more frantic by the second. That’s it. Rhodey was not qualified for this shit.

“Tones, I’m gonna let you go now so I can call an ambulance. Okay?”

There was no response, but he didn’t really have to wait for one. This could just be a particularly nasty trip – maybe the kid had gotten a call from his father, gone and tried something new – but it could also be some sort of bad reaction, and Rhodey wasn’t taking any chances. 

Letting Tony go, he dashed to the nearest phone, simultaneously relieved and horrified that all the kid did was continue to desperately tear at his skin with blunt nails. Dialling 911, he focussed on cataloguing Tony’s symptoms and clearly explaining the situation to the woman on the other end of the line, all the while attempting to block out his friend’s panicked mumblings, and the rough whisper of tearing skin.

The paramedics arrived not even 5 minutes later, but Tony had still managed to cover every exposed inch of skin in long, angry pink stripes – breaking it in some places and smearing traces of blood across his inflamed flesh. The image of his friend, trembling and moaning and tearing at his skin with bloodied nails as the paramedics loaded him into the ambulance… that would haunt him to his dying day, Rhodey was sure of it.

His only relief was that one kindly man asked if he would like to ride with Tony to the hospital.

He held his hands the whole way.

…

At the hospital, Rhodey spent agonising hours pacing the waiting room, stomach twisted into knots and mind blaring at him the whole time. It was almost 5am by the time a doctor came to speak to him.

“James Rhodes?”

Rhodey stepped towards the doctor, eyes locked on the woman – desperately trying to read her body language, to unravel the rigid line of her posture and find underneath it something about Tony.

_ Anything  _ about Tony.

“That’s me.”

“You’re here for Anthony Stark, correct?”

Rhodey nodded, and she smiled - genuinely smiled – and a little of the tension in his gut melted at the sight.

“So, Doc, what’s the prognosis?”

“Anthony appeared to be suffering from mercury poisoning. In fact, one of the worst cases I’ve ever seen. He should be fine, although we will need to monitor him for a couple of days. Do you have any idea where he could have been exposed to a high dose of inorganic mercury recently?”

Rhodey paused, attempting to catalogue all of the information that had just been dumped on him.

“Wait. So, you’re telling me all of the shaking, the itching… he was saying there were goddamn bugs under his skin, for God’s sake! That was all from mercury poisoning?”

The doctor nodded, and her kindly smile vanished.

“As you can see, it is very serious indeed. And other people could be affected by this too, depending on how your friend was exposed to this level of mercury. You need to think – do you have any idea on how he could’ve come into contact with this?”

Tony had come back from the labs shaking…

“We’re students at MIT – Tony was in one of the science or engineering labs, working on a project. There could be other students, or professors, that were exposed to this too.”

The doctor smiled again, though her eyes looked strained.

“Thank you. We’ll sort that all out at MIT, no need to worry. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get onto that. Anthony is in room 7,” She began to walk away, but turned back after a few steps, “You’re a very good friend, James.”

…

Tony was lying in a hospital bed, his small frame dwarfed by the sterile room. He had never looked so young, and Rhodey’s heart clenched.

He took a step into the room, and suddenly Tony’s eyes were blinking open.

“Hey, platypus. How’re you doing?” His voice was soft, but regardless Rhodey felt the knot in his stomach dissolve.

_ Tony was okay. _

It would all be okay.

So they sat, and talked together for a while - after some light chastisement on Rhodey’s part, of course. When the teenager fell asleep, the older boy made a trip back to their dorm to get some more comfortable clothing for the both of them, and a couple things to keep Tony entertained - there was no way in hell he’d let the kid leave the hospital early. So maybe this kind of thing happened too often, and maybe Rhodey’s mothering instincts were a bit too finely honed to be healthy. He knew that his life was changed forever the second this scrawny kid stumbled into it - but, somewhat surprisingly, he was okay with that. He had become an older brother, a protector, a common-sense instiller, a 24-hour revolving restaurant service and 90% of this kid’s impulse control - among other things. First and foremost though, Tony was his best friend. 

And he’d never have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this! I'd love a comment, I promise I don't bite! It doesn't even have to be words, just an emoji would be amazing.


End file.
